The present invention relates to a distribution or transportation system for delivering ice cubes or pieces in batch or charge form along a delivery or transport tube to one or more satellite bins for dispensing ice and/or an iced beverage for use, and more particularly, to such a system wherein an insulating driver member, preferably in the form of a piston, engages the batch and upon being propelled delivers the batch to the satellite bin(s) in an efficient and rapid manner.
The use of self-service ice and iced beverage dispensers is becoming more and more popular, especially in fast food restaurants. In general, a dispensing machine is conveniently located in the dining area of the restaurant and has a bin for containing several pounds of ice at one time. The ice is dispensed by the customer holding a cup under a delivery chute to activate a rotating wheel with paddles that lift the ice and deposit the desired number of cubes into the cup. Next, the cup is placed under a selected beverage nozzle and a valve actuated to add the flavored beverage or water.
At present, the most common manner of filling the bin with the ice cubes is simply through a manual operation of dumping ice into the machine from a large bucket. It has also been suggested to provide an ice maker on top of each of the dispensing machines to keep the bin filled with ice cubes. While this system works well in some installations, it has been found that for a reasonably sized ice maker that can be placed on the dispenser, the ice making capacity is not sufficient to keep up at times of high demand. Also, it is a relatively costly alternative due to the high cost of the ice maker.
An example of a highly successful ice dispenser that is used in the industry is shown in Applicant's own prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,685, issued on Jun. 5, 1990.
There has also been a suggestion to overcome the shortcomings of the manual filling procedure, or the use of a ice maker on the dispensing machine, by using a high capacity, central ice maker located in the kitchen area of the restaurant and delivering ice through a tubular distribution system to satellite dispensers. One of the first known systems of this kind utilized a water carrier in which the ice cubes were suspended; the water/ice suspension being pumped from the central location to the satellite dispenser machine. The ice cubes are separated at the dispenser, with the water being dumped, or returned in a loop to pick up more ice and repeat the delivery cycle.
A later modification of this prior system had to do with the use of air as the carrier for moving the ice through the delivery tube. Generally, this pneumatic system is believed by most to be an improvement. However, in either system, there was a major drawback due to breakage and melting of the ice cubes during transport of the ice to the dispensers. Indeed, in some of the prior systems, up to 40% of the ice is determined to be lost during transit.
A later system attempted to modify the pressurized air distribution system wherein a batch of ice cubes is placed in the conveying conduit while the air is cut off from the conduit. The ice cubes or pieces are then, as in the earlier systems, directly engaged by the conveying medium, that is the air, and literally blown to the remote location. However, it was found that this prior art system suffers the same drawbacks of allowing unacceptable levels of breakage, especially as the ice is blown at high velocity into the bin, and inducing high levels of melting of the ice cubes. Also, as soon as the initial blast of conveying medium hits the batch, the cubes are separated, and then string out, as the high velocity air forces its way through the interstices between the cubes. This high velocity air, and its exposure to the full surface area of substantially every cube, is what causes the excessive melting. Also, as the cubes break away from each other, the tumbling action not only contributes to breakage, but also generates excessive noise as the ice travels along the delivery tubes. This system is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,152, issued on Aug. 11, 1994 and 5,549,421, issued on Aug. 27, 1996.
In addition, the system of the '152 and '421 patents is inefficient in that the satellite bins are preferably connected in parallel thereby further increasing the cost of the system. This prior art system is slow in that a new batch of ice cannot be formed while the previous batch is being delivered, and there is a requirement that there can be no air assist to introduce the ice into the transport tube. In addition, this arrangement makes it very difficult to provide cleaning of the system, as is required on a regular basis.
Accordingly, a need exists for a distribution or transportation system for ice cubes or pieces, and/or a similar beverage dispenser, that is more efficient, operates more rapidly and reliably and substantially eliminates the problems of breakage, noise and melting of the ice during the delivery to the satellite ice/beverage dispensing machines. Furthermore, another significant objective and advance in the art is simplifying the system to lower the initial cost and to keep the reliability up and the cost of maintenance down. Still another key aspect is to provide an efficient and rapid system for cleaning for this and similar distribution systems.